


Different Side to You

by bristow



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: 5 Times, F/M, Friendship, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-11
Updated: 2013-09-11
Packaged: 2017-12-26 06:48:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/962859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bristow/pseuds/bristow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>5* Felicity sees Oliver without his shirt on + the 1* he does.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Different Side to You

He’d cut himself again. Not too badly, but bad enough to take his shirt off so he could take a better look at it. How he’d managed to cut himself near his shoulder, she didn’t know. But for some reason that’s not what was on her mind and it took all she had to keep looking at the cut and not…well, elsewhere.  
“You’re bleeding.”

“Yeah, thanks. Got that already.”

“No, I meant you’re shirt- sure! Sure it’s not too bad?” Really smooth, Felicity. He didn’t look at her, just sort of smiled. Just as well for her, red never really was her favourite colour. Especially not the colour her face was right about now.

“You mind?” He held out a small towel to her, this time looking right at her. She readjusted her glasses and gave a small nod.

“Sure, of course.” She went over, taking the towel and standing over his cut. “How did you do it this time?” He shrugged slightly.

“Something sharp, I guess.” Felicity smiled as she wiped away the blood, not realizing just how close she was leaning until she was almost nose-to-nose with Oliver. “Will I live?” He asked, looking down at his shoulder and back at her, smiling slightly. Felicity swallowed and adjusted her glasses again, squinting as she focused on his cut.

“I think the odds are in your favour.” She forced her eyes to stay on target, painfully aware of just how close she really was to him and his almost unnerving staring. She gave one last wipe, probably too hard and tossed the towel onto the table. “There. Done.” She smiled and backed quickly away, almost bumping into a table and falling flat on her rear end. “You should probably put something on that.” She smiled one last time and turned away, leaving Oliver probably wondering just what the Hell she was doing and defiantly smiling.

***********

“You have no shirt on.”

“This is the beach, you know. Some guys do go shirtless at the beach, Felicity.”

“I didn’t know there was a code for this kind of thing.” Felicity looked around and then down at her not-so-beach-worthy-clothes. Not that she was here for the beach part of the ‘beach’.

“Somehow I don’t think the same rule applies for women.” Felicity scowled at Oliver, not that he was looking at her anyway. “Although it’d be pretty damn interesting.” She rolled her eyes.

“Don’t look at me. I wouldn’t be caught dead in one of them. I don’t have the… you know, for it.”

“For what?” Oliver asked, looking at her, “A shirt?”

“No. I mean-one of those…things.” She pointed half-heartedly at a passing bikini-clad beach-goer. Oliver looked and nodded before resuming his former viewing.

“Have you ever wore one?”

“One what?” She pushed her glasses up, wishing with all her heart that she could just get out of the place and back to where she really belonged. “A bikini?” Oliver nodded. “No, not really. Well, sort of.” He glanced at her, “When I was 10.”

“You’ll have to try it again one day. 10 was a long time ago.”

*******

“Hope I didn’t disturb you.”

“No, no. I’m always awake at 2am.”

“You’re not wearing a shirt.” Felicity glanced at Oliver before glancing away again. _Again.  
_ “This happens to be what I sleep in.”

“What, no shirt?”

“Something like that. What have we got?” Oliver put his hand on Felicity’s chair, leaning over her shoulder to get a better look at the screen in front of her. Felicity swallowed, focusing on the screen in front of her. _Damn, why did he have to be shirtless and smell so good at 2am? How is that even possible?!_  
  
“So not fair!” Her eyes widened as she realized she’d said her last thought out loud and hoping beyond hope he hadn’t heard.

“What?”

“This!” She said, looking up at him and back at the computer, “And at this time of night.” He nodded slightly almost like he didn’t believe her. Not that she believed her either.

******

“Why are we doing this again?” Felicity all but whined at Oliver as he stood in front of her, calming holding his stick behind his back.

“Because it’s necessary for you to know this, I told you.”

“How to hit someone with a stick?”

“No, how to defend yourself. You’re a-“

“What?” Felicity demanded with narrowed eyes.

“ _Woman_ ,” Oliver said, “Woman. I was going to say woman.”

“Wimpy girl is more like it.” Felicity muttered, glancing at the stick in her hand like it was about to bite her.

“If you say so.” She narrowed her eyes at Oliver again as he placed his stick on the ground and took his singlet off before picking the stick back up again.

“What’d you do that for? To help you beat me better?”

“Is that a challenge?” Felicity swallowed slightly, raising her chin.

“Maybe.” Oliver laughed.

“Very convincing. Now if you’re-” He stopped mid-sentence as Felicity hit him square in the jaw with the edge of her stick, not hard enough to do serious damage but hard enough to send a little trickle of blood out.

“See, taking your shirt off really doesn’t help you. Or hurt either.” Felicity grimaced as her brain yet again spat out something she was sure to regret. Oliver wiped away the blood, looking at Felicity and smiling.

“Oh you’re good.”

******

“You ok?” Oliver glanced up at Felicity, then back at his hands as he continued unwrapping them.

“Yeah, of course. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“You’ve been hitting that thing pretty hard. And you’re bleeding, again. Here,” she demanded, taking his hand into hers as she knelt down, turning it side-to-side and shaking her head. “Were you trying to do that?”

“Do what?” Felicity glanced up at Oliver.

“You know.” He shook his head slowly and watched her as she gently unwrapped his hands, careful to not rip the skin away. “It must hurt.”

“No, you’re doing it fine.” Felicity smiled and peeled away the last of it, placing in on the floor next to Oliver. She stood up and looked down at him.

“That’s not what I meant.” Oliver looked up at her and she swallowed at the emotions in his eyes. She picked up his sweet-shirt and handed it to him, turning and walking away.

“Thanks.” She stopped and turned back. Oliver smiled at her and she nodded.

“You’re welcome.”

******

She’d been wounded. For the first time. Well, the first bad time anyway. He’d told her not to fix that old thing, it was bound to give off some electric charge at some time. But had she listened? No. Women.  
“Take off your shirt.” Felicity looked at him with horror in her eyes, cradling her arm to her chest.

“It’s not that bad,” She said shaking her head and taking a small step away from him, “Really, I’m fine.” Oliver sighed and took a bigger step towards her, closing the small distance between them.

“You’re not ok. You’re bleeding,” He gently took her arm and held it out for her to see the small trickle of blood staining her shirt. “Please.” He looked her in the eyes until she nodded and started to unbutton her shirt. He quickly backed up and turned away, rubbing his forehead with his fingers. He didn’t really know why he was turning away. After all, he’d be looking at her without a shirt on soon enough. He looked up, seeing her reflection in the windows in front of him as she gingerly took her shirt off. He quickly glanced down again. She deserved respect. He looked to the side where a towel hung over a chair. “Here,” He said, picking it up and turning around, holding it out and looking nowhere but her eyes, “Cover yourself with this.” She nodded and quickly took it from him. More like snatched it…

“Ok,” She said in a quiet voice, “You can turn around now.” Oliver swallowed and turned around closing the distance between them again. She’d wrapped the towel around her stomach and up to her chest, covering everything she needed to and showing all that she had to. She held onto the top of the towel, letting it drop just enough to let him see her shoulder and where the charge had hit, leaving a nasty red burn on her shoulder and neck. He carefully laid his hand on the wound, aware of her shivering and wincing at the action, as well as the two little black straps that the towel didn’t quite cover.

“Does it burn?” She nodded and looked to where he was holding her shoulder.

“Thank-you.” She said.

“For what?”

“Looking away. It’s really… thoughtful.” Oliver looked at her and smiled.

“You deserve respect Felicity. Don’t let anyone ever tell you otherwise.” She smiled and nodded, pulling her towel up further.

“Will I live?”

“I think the odds are in your favour.”  



End file.
